Greek food for thought: Richard Nixon has...

Greek food for thought: Richard Nixon has a museum in Yorba Linda but his first vice president is largely forgotten--except at the trendy Cafe Athens in Santa Monica.

The eatery’s menu features photos of several well-known Greeks, among them Spiro Agnew.

Lest any Democratic diners point out that Agnew was forced to resign and later pleaded no contest to charges of tax evasion, the menu says in a footnote:

“We do not make moral judgments. . . . Spiro Agnew was selected on the basis of having achieved the second-highest office in the land. . . .”

No doubt Sen. Paul Tsongas will also be celebrated by Cafe Athens should he receive the Democratic presidential nomination. The news media currently rate him an underdog, but you know the news media--those nattering nabobs of negativism.

Yo! Judge!: When the Simi Valley courtroom heard the audiotape of the radio communications between police officers at the scene of the Rodney G. King beating and dispatchers, spectators broke into laughter. Rather than beginning with police jargon, the tape blared rap music. It was later explained that the dispatchers, fighting boredom on the midnight shift, had been listening to the music, but had forgotten to turn it off.

But does she like broccoli?: Lynn Collings of L.A. was surprised to receive a letter from Sen. Robert Dole (R-Kan.) inviting her to join the Republican Inner Circle of fat-cat campaign contributors. She declined, writing back: “I was curious as to which of my previous and current affiliations caught your interest. Was it one of the following:

“American Civil Liberties Union, Women’s Strike for Peace, Another Mother for Peace, SANE, Greenpeace, Sea Shepherds, Hollywood Women’s Political Caucus, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) . . .”?

Logic vacancy: Robert Sharp is intrigued by the banner of a downtown apartment that says: “If you can read this you’d be home by now.”

Sharp points out that he can read it while driving on the Harbor Freeway yet he lives in South Pasadena.

Depositin’ of the green: St. Patrick’s Day is almost upon us, a festive occasion for downtown L.A.’s only Irish bank (see photo).

Don’t let him out the door with that burger: A car spotted on the San Diego Freeway carried a bumper sticker that proclaimed, “Friends don’t let friends eat meat.”

Polka dots and Gov. Moonbeam: We never believed all that stuff about presidential candidate Jerry Brown being spacey. We should point out, though, that when he was governor, the car he used was a Pontiac Satellite.

miscelLAny:

Caltech records an average of about 30 earthquakes per day in Southern California, most (fortunately) of a magnitude of less than 2.0.